The Right Person
by Titanic-fanatic
Summary: A stolen kiss from Eren throws everything into question for Levi. Having just lost his squad, and the woman he loved, why does he find himself going down to see the brat? First Ereri, implied Rivetra. Wanted to try a different take on the whole thing. Please let me know what you think!


**The Right Person**

So Levi hadn't been expecting that.

He felt the pressure on his mouth ease and a pair of hooded green eyes, come into focus.

_'What the fuck just happened?'_

"Eren, I think you should go back to your room now," Levi said, voice gravelly as his thoughts raked over what had just passed.

He could see the brat looked deflated, that sparkle in his often wide eyes falling under a contorted brow. Levi remained firm, drawing on his ability to withdraw completely from his own countenance to leave but a pair of stern silver irises in his emotions' stead.

"Oh, okay Heichou," Eren managed, sloping off the sofa and wandering out the office.

The room became occupied with an awkward silence, cold and unforgiving. Levi felt his sigh reach every corner of it as he slumped his shoulders, leaning on his knees. The door had clicked shut, some time ago now, but his gaze darted to it regardless. Perhaps he wanted to apologise for being so, so…what? So _un_caring? So _in_considerate? So_ un_-fucking-sociable? He had heard it all over the years and had concluded that was just him, the way he was.

Levi blinked and his brow knitted together in an almost pained expression as it studied the wooden panel concealing him from the world. In his heart of heats Levi knew none of those words truly applied to him; they were just people's opinions and he had given up attempting to deter them some time ago because in all honesty it was effort he did not wish to exude and there was nobody he cared to impress to make it even worth it. Especially not after her.

"Fucking hell, Petra, where are you when I need you?" he muttered.

The soundlessness that followed his utterance was nothing new and just reminded him of all the other shit that had happened recently.

_'Oh yeah, you're fucking dead because I wasn't there for you, for any of you.'_

Levi shut his eyes, running a palm over them and through his hair, another tired exhale escaping his body. He was wearing thin and fraying at the immaculately pressed seams: run into the ground with his shitty ankle, the mess the legion had landed itself in, the loss of his squad and the loss of the only woman he had ever loved.

_'I can't do this without you,' _ Levi found himself thinking, _'You'd know what to say, what to do…who am I kidding you'd send me to bed and just hold me.'_

As a few tears fought to surface, one succeeded. Feeling the wetness seemed to shake Levi from his melancholy; since when did he become such a whiny and needy brat anyway?

_'Oh yeah,' _ he recalled for a second time, leaning back into the sofa and craning his neck up to the ceiling in defeat.

There was no way out of this circle of hell on Earth. Levi knew he had done this to himself, having let his heart open up after the agony of bygone days and faces only to have life trample all over it again for being so weak and naive as to try once more for 'normality'. This wretched sensation of surviving whilst others fell was very reason Levi had distanced himself in the first place. Being closed off meant you didn't allow for the possibility to get hurt by the people around you even more than necessary.

* * *

He found himself unable to sleep, like most nights, and like most nights Levi had taken a walk. This evening, however, was different. For so many shitty reasons and for one unbeknownst to Levi, he had found himself in the dungeon of the castle and observing his subordinate from just outside the bars of his cell. The boy was curled up in his bedding, hardly visible in the low torchlight. That is what he was; but a boy, a confused child. Levi shouldn't have been so fucking soft as to forget himself and let that guard down, become familiar with him. Feed this ridiculous admiration he had, more than idolatrous admiration as it had most definitely transpired.

Levi cared for Eren, that was why. He felt akin to the cadet, coming from nothing and finding himself wanting to rid the world of titans…but not like that, like this. He wouldn't let himself feel this way nor even entertain such an idea as last time it…

Levi snuffed, crossing his arms a little tighter as he turned away from the brat in his care.

_'Why am I even thinking about this? Shitting hell, losing them is fucking me up more than ever.'_

"Heichou?"

Levi's face crinkled, shoulders tensing at the address. He'd have to look at Eren some time, those bright green eyes were probably already on him and Levi's cravat felt that little bit tighter at the mere prospect.

"You can talk to me, you know,"

He didn't want Eren's fucking pity. He. Hell, Levi didn't know what the fuck he was thinking even walking down here, so how could he expect his mouth to formulate a response. As usual he defaulted, letting his body take the lead. Against his better judgement, Levi exhaled, turning on his heel and plucked the keys to the cell from his pocket. He unlocked the door and stepped into the darkness, wandering over to the pair of eyes now illuminated by flickering candle light.

"Eren," he started with a pause, "This...it can't happen,"

He looked into his lap and Levi found he was dragging up a chair beside him at the sight.

"Do you want a fucking list?" he began calmly.

"I'm-, You're my subordinate, you are younger than me…a lot younger…not that it should be a factor but it is brat, and if the military police found out then they'd have you out of our custody quicker than you can shift form," he growled, heartbeat that little bit more laboured than when he had started speaking.

"And I care about your wellbeing," Levi let slip, a constriction of his lungs bringing the words forth.

The raven haired man cursed himself mentally. Still trying to decipher where, if on Earth, his mind was. Right now he felt as though a migraine was mushing all common sense and certainties into pulp. Pulp that sickened Levi at the thought of even trying to muddle through at this hour.

"I care about you too, Levi Heichou, just let me do that," the youth answered quietly, cutting Levi's rambling musings short.

"Eren, I'm not-," he implores, "Petra and I, we were-,"

He ends up patting Eren on the head before crouching, eyes falling in line with the boy's.

"I just want to keep you safe, I couldn't do that for my mother…for Mikasa as she followed me here…I…don't want to lose you."

Levi's hard expression softened at this, his hands resting on the edge of the mattress as he spoke.

"I can take care of my self, Yeager,"

Dishonesty tainted his teeth, but Levi pressed on nonetheless, "Besides, I'm not going anywhere,"

_'Was that what this was, misdirected want to protect me? I know the feeling of wanting to make up for those who have-'_

"Not since they died, Heichou," Eren overrode.

Levi's speculation fell silent. He couldn't argue with that. His mind often drifted and his sleeping pattern had become more erratic and sparse. It was evident with the darkened circles now etched under his eyes and the habit of only speaking if absolutely necessary. He took to training alone in the wee hours and inspecting the halls late at night. The evasion of people had become a preoccupation and Levi had never been so up to date on his paperwork. It was all becoming apparent in the wake of Eren's stare and for once Levi had no place to steal away to; there was no running from their proximity.

Fingertips brushed his own and Levi saw them being taken into Eren's. He didn't stop it, for an intimate touch was so rare and fleeting these days that his skin could scarcely believe it, let alone push it away.

"I can't stand to see you so alone," Eren murmured, observing his Captain's hands in his.

He withdrew them, daring to excavate that searing silver again.

Levi exhaled at the loss of contact, only to have it returned to his face. Eren's heated palms singed his jaw, keeping his eyes trained on a pair of lips. He let them touch, unable to find the will to break from their imminent collision with his own. The Lance Corporal sighed into the brief motion, brushing his mouth back before Eren had slid his own completely past. He felt an intake of breath, short and shocked, before an easy pace was found. The kisses were soft and kind, noses brushed, Levi's eyes shut and his chair shifted against the stone as he rose. His brow rested against Eren's, before another kiss was given. Hot, more demanding, searing against his skin. Levi was surprised that his own hands had found their way across the sheets, gripping them furiously as he leant upward as to deepen the kiss further. A moan was on the cusp of his lips when he blinked.

Levi swallowed, stuck, with hands hanging onto the bundles of fabric either side of Eren's hips.

_'What the hell am I doing?'_

He pulled backwards, ignoring the way his pulse was sloshing through his ears, carrying that pulp of sense back to his brain.

"No. Eren. I'm sorry."

Sitting back onto the chair he continued, "I appreciate your feelings. Hell, I'm flattered…but this isn't right. Not that if we-, just because we are-,"

Levi was getting tongue tied and he could see the bewildered eyes before him becoming bleary.

"I'm lonely. You're right….but I'd be taking advantage of you if I let this go on and it can only end badly."

Eren gave a quiet nod and his superior eyed him from a distance.

"You trust me, don't you?"

His head shot up at this, Levi's level and steady stare set on his face behind pursed lips and pressed fingers.

"Yes,"

It pained Levi how fervently Eren's voice had sounded, in light of how that trust from others had been misplaced so fatally.

"Then trust in what I say," he began softly, slipping his fingers to support his own chin, "It comes from living this pain over and over,"

Levi let that linger, that overwhelming sensation sinking into his senses as Eren listened obediently.

"It doesn't go away and it may seem worth it at the time but afterwards it just aches. This constant ache-," he gestured to his own heart, as though to grab at the elusive yet omnipresent throbbing that filled his chest cavity every shitty day.

His grey went to Eren and properly took in his innocent eyes and fresh complexion. Even in the shadows of the cell he didn't look like a soldier but a kid in the wrong place at the wrong time. Levi could distill what he had been through, it ran through the line of his lips and the slight line forming between his eyebrows. He had seen flashes of it before, a haunted hue his green gaze took on in the wake of dusk. Levi had read the kid's file; how Eren had seen his mother eaten, killed men threatening his to-be-sister in a way that he himself had done in his own adolescence. In some bizarre way it made Eren kind of beautiful to Levi, in that the shit of this world had hardly scathed him. Eren had not been tainted as he had. He was a pure soul, one hell bent on eradicating their common enemy, but nonetheless wondrous to behold. Truly the gift humanity needed.

Levi could still taste him on his tongue but forced it to the back of his mind, reaching a decision.

"You've gone through enough and you don't need whatever just happened between us on top of it."

His voice had regained its usual clarity and authority; Levi had to protect Eren, keep him safe and just the way he was. Let his abilities improve, let him grow, but never lose that indescribable aura.

"Eren, you are only young and when all this crap is over and the titans are gone, right person _will_ find you."

"Sorry Heichou. It won't ha-,"

Levi waved off the issue, offering another pat on the head and heading toward the cell door.

"Was Petra-san the right person?"

He lingered for a second, his grip on the iron bar tightening at the question.

"I like to think so, brat," Levi started, going through the cell with a jangle of his keys.

He could have sworn he saw Eren smile sadly at this. Levi continued to lock the door, pocketing the ring and giving the youth an unreadable look. His mind ticked over for a moment or two, something clicking into place.

"Though I'm starting to believe she would still be here if she was," he ended honestly, heartbeat off-setting as he spoke.

* * *

It wasn't a fully formed answer, to Eren or otherwise, but it allowed Levi to find sleep a little quicker that night. It wasn't until silence reigned in the midst of a battlefield that this response made sense to Levi. A distant day in the wake of a blood-drenched Sun and the searing heat of hundreds of titan carcasses at his feet. His blades had been dropped to the floor on freeing the weight that was now in his arms. Said man was departing unconsciousness, exhaling with a splutter.

"You did it, Eren," Levi informed, hearing a few pockets of joyous exclamation from other members of the Corps filtering into his ears.

"We did, didn't we," Eren smiled meekly, staring up at the sky.

"Can you stand?" his Captain asked.

He attempted to stand as tall as he felt though Levi had hardly let go when he was returned to his arms. The shorter man bore his weight, supporting him over his shoulder. Levi held Eren against him, feeling every exhausted exhale reverberate through his own chest, and that was it. The ache was gone. The weight he had carried for so long had been replaced by another, something tangible in his hands.

"Eren," Levi breathed in realisation.

Green eyes hit his at their name, shifting it's head as to glean a better look at their Corporal. He clung onto the man for stability, searching his stare.

"Do you still need to be found?"

Eren shook his head, near to tears, as a pair of silver eyes softened for him.

"You?" he returned.

Levi sealed his answer with a kiss, that long forgotten taste coming forth.

_'Freedom'_


End file.
